Why Just Mothers?

We have gotten a lot of questions over the years about our name and its perceived exclusivity. Why are we just Mothers Against Drunk Driving?

The fact is, drunk driving affects fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, grandmothers, friends, coworkers, and the list goes on and on. While our founders were grieving mothers, MADD prides itself on reaching out to any individual affected by this tragic crime. In fact, our previous National President Glynn Birch was a father, not a mother.

Several years ago, we even looked into changing our name to address this very problem. But you know what we found out? In order to restablish the amount of awareness and public trust built up in our name, we would need to invest millions of dollars and countless years. In the end, we'd rather spend the generous donations of our supporters on the actual prevention of the crime rather than a rebranding campaign.

So instead, we try to refer to ourselves as MADD more than Mothers Against Drunk Driving. After all, we're all capable of being MADD.